Strong Fightback by Manu Bhaker! Placed 5th After Round 1 of 25m Qualification

Manu Bhaker is the only Indian shooter competing in three events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Manu Bhaker has finished fifth after the first round of qualification in the 25m air pistol event. 

(Photo: PTI)

Just 19 and Manu Bhaker's Tokyo 2020 experience has been anything but ideal. The Olympic debutant suffered a gun malfunction in her opening event, the 10m air pistol, in which she's also currently the second ranked player in the world. She then paired up with Saurabh Chaudhary in the 10m air pistol Mixed Team event in which the pair were the gold medal favourites, however, a few errors on the part of the young 19-year-old meant they finished at the seventh position.

Being the only Indian shooter selected to compete in three events at the Tokyo Games, Manu still has one shot at redemption and she's staged a big comeback, finishing fifth after the first qualification round of the 25m air pistol event.

Manu shot 97, 97 and 98 in the three rounds of 'Precision' on Thursday to finish with a total score of 292. She's placed fifth among the 44 shooters in competition.

There are three shooters in fact on the same score with Vitalina Batsarashkina of Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), the gold medallist in women's 10m air pistol, and Ukraine's Olena Kostevych also shooting 292. Vitalina shot 13 inner 10 scores while Manu and Olena both shot nine so she's ahead of the pair while Olena is sixth.

Rahi Sarnobat, the other Indian competing in the event, has finished the precision round in the 25th position with a score of 287. The 30-year-old is the current world number one in the event, while manu is ranked second.

Serbia's Zorana Arunovic is placed at the first position after the completion of the round, having scored 296. Greece's Anna Korakaki, who had a score of 294 and Bulgaria's Antoaneta Kostadinova with 293 are second and third.

There will be a second 'Rapid' round of qualification on Friday that starts at 5:30am and the top eight shooters with the best combined scores will move into the final that will get underway at 10:30am IST.